West Brom manager Carlos Corberan has revealed that he sees new signing Josh Maja playing alongside current number nine Brandon Thomas-Asante in the future.
The Baggies boss moved to sign a new forward this summer having sanctioned the loan of Karlan Grant to Cardiff City despite losing the services of Daryl Dike through injury, and the former Huddersfield boss believes he has the makings of a dangerous strike pairing.
Thomas-Asante has led the line since Dike suffered his most recent injury in April and has carried a threat, scoring 14 times in all competitions last season and Corberan plans to partner him with Maja to bring the best out of both forwards.
Discussing the addition of the Nigerian forward, Corberan was quoted by Birmingham Live (8 August), saying: “Maja is a player who can give us different things to the things we have right now. Maja can play with Asante, or without Asante.
“This is one of the main reasons he is here. He can play as a number nine or with another, their skills mean that both players can play together. That they’re different profiles means that the players can play together. Both players are comfortable playing together – but that doesn’t mean they will play together!”
Different attacking options haven’t exactly been in abundance at the Hawthorns since Corberan took over last year, with Thomas-Asante the only permanent fixture in the striker department as Dike has been in and out of the treatment room.
Maja does provide a different profile and on top of that is a genuine goal scorer, a talent that cannot be undervalued especially when the Baggies have been on the lookout for that magical 20-goal striker every Championship club is desperate for.
Since Corberan took over in West Bromwich he has almost exclusively played with one recognised striker with his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation in use and Thomas-Asante pushed into a wider role should another forward be selected through the middle of the park.
The Spaniard may now have another string to his bow with the signing of Maja and might just be able to change up his approach and play two out-and-out strikers through the middle of the park and surprise a few teams.
Or then again, as he said himself it “doesn’t mean they will play together.”
